Charles p



(No Model.)

'0. F. SHAIN.

DRESS SUPPORTER.

No. 461,594. Patented Oct. 20, 1891,.

THE noun 5 PEYERG ca, mum-Limo, WASKINGTON n c.

2? NrrED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES r. SHAIN, OF NEW YORK, 1T. Y.

DRESS-SU-PPORTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 461,594, dated October 20, 1891. Application filed December 5 1890. Serial No. 373,689- (No model.)

lo all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES F. SHAIN, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Dress-Supporters, of which the following is a specification.

This supporter is provided with a clamp at one end of a cord or chain and a clasp at the other, the clasp at one end being especially adapted to engaging the waist-belt and the clamp at the other end to engaging the dress, and the distance between the clasp and clamp can be varied by drawing the cord or chain through a tapering clamping-ferrule, so as to hold the dress up to a greater or less extent.

In the drawings,Figure 1 is an elevation of the improved dress-supporter complete. Fig. 2 is a section of the belt clip or clasp and of the cord-adjuster. Fig. 3 is a section of the cord-adj uster at the line w 00, Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a detached view of the dress-clasp at right angles to Fig. 1, and Fig. 5 shows a modified form of the cord-adj uster and the belt-clasp.

The belt clip or clasp is made of a plate A of sheet metal, with ears or lugs turned up in opposite directions from the sheet metal, where there is an openin gin such sheet metal. The ears or lugs 2 form the pivot-supports for the swinging clip 3 and the ears or lugs 4 support the pivots of the lever 5, the short end of which lever acts upon the short end or tail of the clip 3, and there are teeth 6 at the end of the swinging clip 3, and the propor: tions of these parts are substantially as repsented, so that when the waistband or belt B is entered between the plate A and the swinging clip 3 and the lever 5 is turned up the teeth 6 engage the waistband, and there is sufficient pressure of the clip upon the waistband to grasp the same permanently and reliably for holding the dress-supporter.

The cord or chain 0 extends to the dressclip D, and this dress-clip is made with shellclamping jaws 7 upon the cross-levers 8,-pivotally connected at 9, and there is a sliding band 10 over the upper ends of the levers, by which such levers are moved toward each other to clamp the dress between the jaws 7, and there is a swinging shackle 12 pivoted to the sliding band 10 and receiving the end of the cord or chain, so that this dress-clip D can be applied to the dress in any desired position, and by the sliding of the band 10 the jaws will be firmly pressed upon the dress and the swinging shackle 12 allows the cord to draw off in any desired direction to the jaws of the clip.

. In order to vary the length of the cord or chain 0, I make use of the conical ferrule E,

through which the cord passes, and there is an inclined clamp 13 within the ferrule E, and the cord passes between the inclined clamp and the conical ferrule, so that by giving motion to the conical ferrule in its relation to the inclined clamp the cord will be either firmly clasped or released, so that it may be drawn up or slackened more or less. I prefer to make use of the clamping-ferrule in the form shown in Fig. 1, in'which the conical ferrule E is on a plate 14, that is linked to the plate A of the belt-clip, and the inclined clamp 13 within the conical ferrule Eis allowed the desired end movement within such ferrule for clamping or releasing the cord, there being offsets or shoulders upon the end portions of the inclined clamp to prevent the same drawing out from the ferrule, and it is preferable to make this inclined clamp of a folded strip of sheet metal, around the fold of which the cord passes, as represented, and the inclined side parts of the clip are stiffened bybeingbentinto a curved or troughshaped section for the cord to lie within such inclined portions of the clamp and within the ferrule. If the ferrule is detached, as represented in Fig. 5, one end of the cord may be connected with one end of the inclined clamp 13, and the cord in, that case passes simply through the conical ferrule. In allinstances the tension upon the cord tends to draw the inclined clamp more firmly into the conical ferrule and increase the clamping action upon the cord.

The jaws 7 of the dress-clip D may be corrugated at the edges and made of any desired shape, and the dress-supporter may be more or less ornamental, according to the design and shape or the configuration of the respective parts.

I claim as my invention- 1. The plate A, having ears 2 and 4 formed of the sheet metal of the plate and extending outwardly at opposite sides of the plate wit metal of trough shape seetionally and bent double and having shoulders on the narrower end portion to prevent the inclined clamp drawing out of the ferrule, substantially as I 5 specified.

Signed by me this 2d day of December 1890.

CHARLES F. SI-IAIN.

Witnesses:

GEO. '1. PINCKNEY, HAROLD SERRELL. 

